Sports such as baseball, softball, cricket, stickball, tennis, paddleball, ping pong, etc. involve striking a ball using an apparatus such a bat, a racket, or a paddle. As for most sports, the player is trying to produce the best result possible, that is, hitting the ball in the preferred direction and location and with the desired amount of force and speed. Being expert at hitting the ball and improving one's ability to hit, particularly for baseball, requires practice.
Many different types of training devices have been developed over the years to help players become more skilled with the act of hitting. For baseball, for example, the most common practice device presently used for hitting is the hitting tee. The hitting tee is a stationary stand usually made of plastic tubes on which the baseball sits. The height of the hitting tee, and thus the ball when it is on the hitting tee, is usually adjustable, to some extent, based on the configuration of the tee base and stand. Most conventional hitting tees are constructed to have a minimum height formed by a first stand tube and a maximum height formed by a second stand tube slidably mounted on or within the first stand tube. The bottom of the first stand tube is typically mounted in a hole or opening in the base usually in the shape of home plate. In some conventional hitting tees, there are several (e.g., four or five) holes in which the first stand tube can be placed to vary the location of the ball, to some degree, on the stand with respect to the base (home plate).
Some of the major flaws of a hitting tee are that the positioning of the ball with respect to the plate and the player is limited to a finite number of heights and locations due to the component parts and it is very common for the player to hit the tee when striking the ball decreasing the effectiveness of the device and the practice. When using a hitting tee a player cannot adequately hit the bottom half of the baseball to lift the ball because the hitting tee is in the way. The swing may have been the preferred swing but the trajectory of the ball and the follow through were not desirable due to the bat striking the tee. The user would not know that the swing was a good swing because he/she struck the tee or the ball did not travel in its normal trajectory. Other drawbacks with hitting tees are they can be visually distracting to the hitter causing the player to alter the swing, hit the ball on a different part (e.g., off center) to avoid striking the tee, and/or creating bad habits during practice for the hitter.
There are training devices that do not use any ball and seek to teach the player to swing a bat in a certain manner or path such as the device disclosed in U.S. 2009/0239686 (Moos) which discloses a baseball bat swing trainer that constrains a baseball bat on a line using a horizontal structure over the head of the batter. The baseball bat swing trainer according to Moos is meant to teach the batter to swing level and prevent a swing below a certain height.
Some other training devices for hitting include a ball suspended from a line that can be hit by the player. In most instances, these types of devices have a ball fixedly attached to the line in a tethered fashion such that the ball stays attached to the line after it is hit. U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,557, for example, discloses a ball practicing device wherein a tethered ball is suspended for contact with a club or bat. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 8,033,934 (Clancy) discloses such an apparatus with a baseball connected to a tether (a rope or string). The apparatus according to Clancy can also be adjusted to fold the horizontal member toward the vertical member exposing a ball tee from which the user can hit the ball. The main drawbacks with such tethering devices are 1) safety, the risk that the player will get hit by the ball and/or tether when it swings around or that the player will be injured by the ball if the tether (rope) is struck instead of the ball thereby toppling the device, and 2) the player does not know how proficient their ball contact is because the ball does not travel off of the tether and into the field. Particularly with regard to safety, such tethered devices create the risk that when the ball is struck, the ball and line may begin to spin and swing in an uncontrollable fashion causing the ball and/or line to strike the user or bystanders that may be standing close by or causing the frame to fall. Additionally, the ball and line may become wrapped around the device's frame and/or may become tangled requiring the user to stop practicing and take the time to reconfigure the device before resuming.
Still further attempts to create a better functioning and safer hitting practice device include those with a ball removably secured to the end of a structure or line from which it is suspended. The ball releases from the line when the user strikes the ball with enough force to break the elements holding the ball in place. For example, for particular use for a volleyball, U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,979 (Brenneisen) discloses a device for practicing striking a volleyball held on a pivotable attachment arm assembly using magnetic or magnet-attractable materials. For tennis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,372 (Keller) discloses a tennis training device for releasably holding a tennis ball at a height to practice serves and U.S. Pat. No. 7,775,913 (Woods) discloses tennis balls releasably connected to strings depending from a support where the ball releases from the string when the user strikes the ball and the string automatically retracts into the support to reduce interference of the string with the user's subsequent stroke. For baseball, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,885 (Nash) discloses a ball supporting structure for batting practice with a ball containing a metal screw supported from a linear flexible member (cable or rope) with a ball supporting magnet on the end. While the detachability of the baseball from the supporting magnet helps the hitter see the trajectory of the ball and improves the utility of the device, there still exists the potential danger to the hitter and those around him/her from the swinging linear flexible member with a weighted magnet on the end, particularly if the ball is not hit cleanly or if the ball is missed and the linear flexible member is hit instead. Furthermore, the exposed metal and screws on the ball's surface make the balls dangerous to field and throw.
Another training device for hitting using a tethered ball or releasable ball is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,150 (Moss, et. al.). The device according to Moss et. al. includes a hinged rigid member with the tether and ball attached to the end that swings the ball towards the batter. While the device allows for the ball to release and also includes a detachable feature at the end of the hinged rigid member to prevent the frame from toppling when the batter swings into the tether and tangles the bat, the swinging end of the tether after the ball releases is still a danger to the user and those around him/her. Only if the force is great enough to break the detachable feature, which is designed to prevent toppling of the frame, is the user protected.
There is a need for a hitting practice device that allows a user to practice hitting a baseball with a bat at any ball position that may be encountered by a batter such as when the ball is thrown by a live pitcher, e.g., inches above the plate, six-feet above the plate, inside corner of the plate, outside corner of the plate, off the plate, etc. There is an additional need for a device that can do so in a safe manner. There is an even further need for balls that may be used with such training devices that have an attaching or connecting means concealed below the exterior surface of the ball (e.g., the leather surface) that react substantially similarly to non-modified baseballs when they are thrown, caught, and hit.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a device that can adjust to provide its user with the full range of ball positions likely to be encountered when hitting during a baseball game. It is also an object of the invention to provide a device that is not a visual obstruction during use resulting in the least amount of distraction to its user while hitting the ball. It is also an object of the invention to provide a device that is safe for its users and for any bystanders by limiting the potential erratic motion of the device and/or its components when in use. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a device that is compact, portable and that can be repeatedly used/operated by a single person. Still another object of the invention is to provide a ball that is releasably connectable to the hitting practice device, but does not pose any additional risk of harm to anyone handling or struck by the ball than would a standard baseball. It is desired to provide a ball that can be safely used with the hitting practice device such that the ball can be safely fielded and played with by others after being hit.
Another object of the invention is to provide a hitting practice device that utilizes a suspended ball that is releasable upon impact and that allows the user to observe the trajectory of the ball thereby allowing the user to see if the ball was hit well. It is furthermore desirable to provide a hitting practice device that utilizes a connector that has the multifunctional ability to (1) releasably connect the second end of a line opposite the ball to a vertical support shaft at varying heights (e.g., a magnet and metallic parts, or a releasable pin, or VELCRO (hook and loop material), etc.), (2) removably connect the second end of a line opposite the ball to a vertical support shaft at varying heights (e.g., with a loop and pegs, or a pin into holes, or buttons, etc.), and (3) connect a counterweight of a predetermined weight to easily suspend the ball at any desired height.
A hitting device that allows for three degrees of freedom of movement of the ball (e.g., in each of the three axes (X, Y, and Z)) prior to hitting the ball is also desired.